Converging networks and technology is an opportunity for qualified construction technology companies to make a difference.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Building Automation Systems vendors reinvented their systems to use standard protocols that were developed for the controls industry, such as BACnet and LonTalk. This allowed building control systems from multiple vendors for HVAC, lighting, electrical distribution, and life safety to be integrated into a common facility management system. While total interoperability was not always insured, the direction was established. Owners could install building networks and field bus solutions that would support standards-based expansion in the future. But it did not enable an IT application to read real-time or historical control system values.

With communications-based Internet Protocols (IP-based) systems being open and standardized, the transfer and sharing of information from one data point to another not only is possible, but seamless – even beyond the building systems themselves. Building-related data – including energy, security, and life safety system information – is easily accessible thorough a standard Web browser instead of being locked in a building management system’s workstation. Real-time energy consumption data is now widely available to management outside the facility department 24/7.

IP-based control and monitoring, whether in a wired or wireless environment, is the new expressway to expanded enterprise applications. We have begun to see this with Web Services, where a device’s data is served to other devices that order the data. Building code, for example, requires that a minimum amount of outside air per occupant is brought into a building. Common control system design is to use a fixed minimum of air based on "design" occupancy, or to adjust ventilation based on a proxy for occupancy levels, such as carbon dioxide measurement. But significant energy savings could be realized if the outside air was based, instead, on actual occupancy.

In the case of buildings like auditoriums, theaters, or convention centers, the actual occupancy might come from the advanced and walk-up ticket sales system. The HVAC systems can know in advance what the anticipated occupancy is, and proactively adjust control strategies accordingly, with additional fine tuning added as actual real-time attendance information becomes available. Web services are the common language that allows the attendance to be fed from the ticket sales system to the building control system, keeping everyone comfortable at the lowest possible ventilation cost.

Facility and IT managers have traditionally installed and managed separate networks for their building and business systems, each measuring success against a distinct set of criteria. While there has been, to some extent, a convergence of those systems in recent years over a common IT network infrastructure, the promise of efficiency has not been fully realized because there remains confusion and skepticism.

On top of this there is continued and sustained growth in the Voice over IP (VoIP) marketplace.

The opportunity for contractors now becomes abundantly clear. With the ability and expertise to provide full service from both sides of this spectrum, contractors become that calming influence and will play an integral role in the future of sustainable building and operations management.

Illustration by Angelo Katsaros